Watch Paparazzi

Actor Al Pacino spotted wearing Omega

In the 1983 Brian De Palma film Scarface, costume and prop decisions were made with surgical intent — every detail of Tony Montana's wardrobe was designed to signal nouveau-riche excess layered over desperate ambition. Among those details, visible in several scenes, is a solid 18k yellow gold Omega La Magique, reference BA 191.8523 Z. It is a watch that whispers wealth rather than shouts it, which makes it a quietly fascinating choice for one of cinema's most flamboyant characters.

The Omega La Magique BA 191.8523 Z belongs to a line Omega introduced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, targeting the luxury dress watch segment with a distinctly European sensibility. The case is crafted entirely in 18k solid yellow gold — not gold-filled, not plated — with a refined tonneau or cushion-adjacent profile characteristic of the era's high jewellery-adjacent watchmaking. Powering the piece is the Omega calibre 1357, a quartz movement that reflects the period's technological confidence in battery-driven accuracy. At the time, quartz was not a compromise — it was progress, embraced enthusiastically even at the top of the market.

From a collector's perspective, the La Magique occupies an interesting niche. It has never commanded the auction premiums of Omega's Constellation or De Ville references from the same period, yet its solid gold construction and low production numbers give it genuine intrinsic and horological value. The Scarface association, however, has introduced a new class of buyer — film memorabilia collectors and watch enthusiasts who track cinematic provenance with the same rigour applied to military-issued or celebrity-owned pieces.

Al Pacino's performance as Tony Montana remains one of the defining roles in American cinema, and every prop in that film has subsequently been scrutinised. The fact that Montana wears an Omega rather than a Rolex or Cartier is itself telling — it suggests a character who has money but not yet the social fluency to spend it with full conviction, a reading that rewards close attention.

On the secondary market, solid gold Omega dress watches from this period trade modestly, typically between two and five thousand dollars depending on condition and documentation. The La Magique BA 191.8523 Z, carried by its Scarface association, sits at the upper end of that range and has attracted steadily growing interest from a crossover collector audience that shows no sign of retreating.